Black Mariah
by McFadden
Summary: Summery: Piracy as the world knows it, has gone into submission. Now all that is left are the legends and the memories of the Last Pirate of the Caribbean. What mystery does the sea hold now that everything is gone?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Still remains the same...Mariah is mine, don't own anything else so don't sue.

A/N: Hello Loves. A bring with me today another POTC story. Why so soon? I need multiple outlets to entertain all of my ideas and this one just happened to spill out in the last half hour. Do enjoy...it will be multi-chapter so look out for it in the future.

If you like it, how will I know unless you review...

McFadden-

Chapter One

It was late in the afternoon. I had been up in the attic of my town home trying desperately to straighten it up through the cobwebs and old junk I'd collected. The young boy scampering about my feet belonged to my brother. He insisted on helping me, but it seemed like all we were doing was making an even bigger mess. His golden blond curly lock shook when he sneezed, dust scattering like glitter from the old book he was holding.

"Moira, who's Black Mariah?"

I stiffened at hearing that name. Michael was tugging at my skirts and looking at me. It took me a while to realize that the book he was holding was indeed a Captain's Log...A very familiar one. I watched as his eyebrows furrowed in confusion over the gold-leaf inlayed letters on the cover. _My Fearless Black Mariah..._

"Is that you?"

I sat down slowly on a piece of furniture which was covered with a white linen sheet. My heart was pumping so fast. I nodded, speaking off into space.

"That's what he called me..."

I sighed, dreading the thoughts that were now resurfacing.

"It was his nickname for me."

Mikey raised a blonde tanned brow at me. He looked so much like my brother then. Lucien and I didn't even look related. We were two of the complete opposites. He was tanned, muscled, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. I took after our mother. My skin was as white as marble now, and I had dark unruly brown hair and hazel eyes. Side by side, we were a stark contrast. Mikey looked at me expectantly.

"Who Aunt Moira?"

My brother, who had been shifting things from one area to the next, smiled and crossed the room, resting a hand on my shoulder and squeezing it in passing. He looked at his son and spoke in a low and secretive voice, reaching his hands out dramatically. As if to emphasize what he was about to reveal was dangerous and not to be said again unless you wanted trouble.

"The infamous Jack Sparrow..."

I smile a bit at Lucien's flare for theatrics and immediately saw the effect on my 5 year old nephew, Michael. He had heard the tales of the famous and notorious Sparrow. His eyes widened in awe and his mouth formed into a little 'o.' He looked ready to explode with excitement.

"You mean _Captain Jack Sparrow!_"

Lucien nodded and Michael's eyes flew to mine, fully alert and hoping for an explanation of how the two of us came to know eachother.

"You knew, Captain Jack!"

I laughed softly and nodded, speaking in a pirates tone that I hadn't spoken in a long time, but it was not lost on me.

"Aye young swab, that I did..."

He eyes went back and forth between his father and me to confirm that I had been telling the truth. When Lucien nodded, Michael lunged at me pulling himself into me lap and grabbing my face in both hands making sure I had all of my attention on him and nothing else.

"Tell me, Aunt Moira, tell me!"

I laughed at his enthusiasm and ruffled his curls. Shaking my head lightly.

"That's a long story Love, fit for another night..."

All I received in return was a sour scowl that Lucien and I tried not to laugh at while I chided him for it.

"Ohh..that's not a pretty face..."

Cocking my head to the side I gave my best apologetic face while sticking out my bottom lip a little farther.

"I'm sorry Baby. I just can't bring myself to tell it just yet. But, you're Daddy knows it, maybe he'll tell you."

Mikey looked hopefully at his father who came and swooped him up. My brother offered me a sympathetic look.

"C'mon Monkey, it's past your bedtime anyway. It'll make good for a nice story to fill you dreams. Give Aunt Moira a kiss goodnight."

Lucien hung Mikey's body upside down infront of me and he grabbed my face and kissed it.

"Night Aunt Moira..."

He paused a thought forming in his mind.

"I mean... Black Mariah..."

He smiled brightly. I kissed him and smiled back. From the corner of my eye I could see Lucien smiling softly at the scene we made. I tickled Mikey on the stomach.

"G'night Love...sweet dreams."

My brother collected the rambunctious boy, who giggled all the way down the stairs. Lucien turned to shut the door behind him and caught my eye, winking at me before disappearing from view.

I sat there for nearly an hour and listened to my tales being told through the cracks in the floor. It was sad to hear them while being in here, surrounded by all the things that brought me back to that time. I picked up the Captain's Log that had been forgotten by my nephew at the mere mention of Jack's name. Opening up it's golden clasp, I moved my fingers lightly across the pages, memorizing the words written there in the airy scrawl of Jack's hand.

"_Captain's Log #1...well not really. This isn't a book of ports. It's about the lovely lass that I'm currently staring at through the porthole of my cabin. My beautiful Black Mariah. She's the only one who has been fearless enough to challenge your dear ole Caps. heart...I sorry to report that she's currently winning. Oh I'm damned to the depths of Davy Jones' Locker for this one. _

_She looks particularly beautiful at the moment. Fuming around in only her shift. She's all flushed on her pale skin, and her hair is wild and raging in the breeze. She's pacing my beloved decks of the Black Pearl, talking to herself and madder than all Hell. smiles That's my fault actually. I told her that we were going to spend a week or more on land at the next port. She hates being off the ocean. That would be the equivalent of spending an eternity with the devil. Although, she would argue that, that is exactly what she was doing now. That Devil she named...being yours truly. Laughs Let me go now before she starts destroying my ship. She's got that evil gleam in her eye. Perhaps I can persuade her to take that anger out and put it to other more recreational uses...Savvy?_

_Cpt. J. Sparrow _

I laughed to myself. I definitely remember that. Let's just say that he was successful in his attempts to calm me down. He always used his charm. We spent the rest of the day in his cabin, undisturbed. I turned the page to see the handwriting in quick and urgent pen strokes. Jack had been aggravated this time.

_Captain's Log #2...Blast it all! Remember when I said Mariah hated being off the ocean? Well we've been in port for almost two days and she has refused to leave the ship! Damn woman! She said that even though it's tied to the dock, it's still on water and that she wasn't going anywhere. That was the last thing she said to me. She has not spoken to me since. She's even refused my advances while I've come onboard to coax her off. If she doesn't grant me at least a kiss soon, I'll surely go mad!_

_Cpt. J. Sparrow_

Poor Jack. I had given him a good bout of the silent treatment that time. But, he got the better of me on the fifth night and eventually, I caved in.My back started to hurt from siting there so I moved to crack it.

"I think you have a new fan..."

I turned at the sound of my brother's voice and laughed. I hadn't realized how quiet the house had been up until that point. He pulled a footstool over by me and sat down. Looking around the room at all the things that were now in an organized mess, he sighed.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

I nodded my head slowly. My brother could tell it was hard for me to admit but he understood. That was the beauty about having an older brother. No matter how many years I lived, or how strong I had proved to be in the past, he'd always protect me. We kept the real reason why we had been in the attic all day a secret from Mikey. I would be moving out, leaving my home to them and only taking a few of my possessions with me.

"I have to Luce...I have to get out of Tortuga. There's nothing keeping me here anymore."

I immediately looked up at him, sorry to have said it that way. I loved my family, they weren't the reason I was leaving. I didn't want him to think that he and Mikey couldn't keep me here. Honestly though, I felt I would go crazy if I didn't get back on the ocean, so I took a small amount from the treasure that I had stowed and fixed up my ship. I was going to set sail and let the waves take me wherever they wanted. The only difference was, I'd be alone, no piracy included. But I tried to make it clear to my brother that I wasn't abandoning him forever.

"I didn't mean..."

He patted my hand reassuringly and smiled.

"I knew what you meant."

He looked about the room and sighed.

"Too many memories in a big empty house..."

Thank God he understood!I picked up an old compass and held it gingerly in my hands. It was Jack's. It never pointed in the right direction. _But who's to say that's the direction we're going..._ That's what he'd always say when I would point it out. My brother's steps on the aged wooded floor made creaking sound as he came up to me. He looked at the compass and hummed the pirate's lullaby. I smiled briefly before I felt the sting of tears in my eyes. He knew the story behind it. It was always one he left off when telling his son about Jack's adventures. It was simply too dark for Michael to handle at such a young age. To Mikey, Captain Jack Sparrow always sailed off into the horizon, never to return again. Lucien ruffled my hair and kissed my temple as he left me alone to the wills of my mind. He knew I hated to let anyone see me cry and had he stood there a minute more, he would have. Turning the compass slowly in my hands, I began to remember.

It was the only thing that Jack had on him when he died. _I should've been there..._ But leave it up to Jack to forbid it. He knew how dangerous it was. He went alone with a handful of his best crew to the Graveyard Of Ships. We had passed through there hundreds of times before. Only this time, it was in danger of discovery by the East India Company. _Oh how Jack hated them. _They had branded him years before, but he'd managed to give them the slip. And now, they threatened to take away the only guarded secret he had left and Jack, being the pirate he was, wasn't going to stand for it.

He had fought them off for three whole days, eliminating over 90 percent of their legions. But the ones who were left proved to be the most dangerous of all. Finally it proved to be too much for an overzealous pirate. It was left up to him and one other soldier. His name was Edward Shaw. How would I know all this happened? Because he told me while he was begging for his life at the end of my cutlass. Unbeknownst to Jack, I had followed him, staying a day out of reach so that I didn't come into the view of his ship. I didn't see his body. I couldn't bring myself to do it. I just didn't want to imagine Jack being dead. It would mean he'd have to be still...and the man was _never_ still. I just stayed with my ship while my crew confirmed that he was indeed left to Davy Jones' Locker. They returned with only one thing, this compass. It had always told Jack where the island was. He had told me once that, _If ever you lose your way Love, and I'm not there, use this and it will bring you to me. _I smiled softly. Jack could be romantic when he wanted. He was a great lover. He would've been furious had he found out that I came after him. In the end, it proved to be the worst error I'd ever made. Had I chanced the possibility of discovery and traveled closer to Jack's ship, maybe he'd still be alive. Maybe I would've gotten there in time to save him, instead of arriving hours too late but close enough to see the smoke still raging from their battle. Of course the gold had been taken by that point and Lt. Shaw escaped. The golden age of piracy died that day along with Jack.

I, on the other hand, had his unfinished business to take care of. I followed Lt. Shaw's trail for a year until I found him. He was caught unawares and without protection. So, being the true last Pirate of the Caribbean, I offered him a sword and fought him until he was at my mercy. On the edges of death, I questioned him about the stolen gold. It pleased me to find that his ship had capsized before he could reach the Isle of India, Taking all the gold with it down to the depths of the sea. I smiled at this, it seems as though Jack did get his final revenge. If the gold belonged anywhere, it was down there with Jack. The only thing that made it out of the shipwreck was Jack's emerald skull ring, which Lt. Shaw had been wearing on his middle finger. Rather than stealing it back, I humiliated the Lieutenant and made him give it to me himself before I killed him.

It was done. No more pirate ships sailed the high seas any longer. Much to their loathing, the remaining swabs of both Jack's and mine became law-abiding sea merchants dispersing through the many harbors of the Caribbean, taking up jobs. Their knowledge of the sea outrivaled anyone who dared to challenge it. They weren't happy about leaving, but, they were alive.

I had taken myself to Tortuga. It wasn't all dodgy areas like it seemed to an outsider. My brother lived there with his son, and if I had a choice of anything but the sea, it would be to stay close to my family. I went by my brother's name for me, Moira. I just wanted to disappear into obscurity That was 4 years ago. It doesn't seem like a long time, but to a pirate deprived of open ocean air, it was a lifetime. Surprisingly, stories of Jack survived him and were told as tales to young children so that they would fall asleep and dream of a time when pirates ruled the seven seas.

My nephew was no exception. It took me forever just to tell Lucien what had happened but he sensed my pain. I knew it when he looked at me. My eyes foretold so much that I was trying to hide from him. He just knew that whenever I'd stare off into the horizon that I wasn't there anymore. In my mind I wasn't even on land. I was at see with my Captain. My brother kept the memory alive in his house. Michael knew of Jack Sparrow through those stories. He was merely a year old when I came in to port for good. I had tales of my own that were known throughout these parts but For the sake of my sanity, my brother Lucien left my tales untold until today. Michael didn't even know of my ties with Jack til now. I was known as the Last Pirate of the Caribbean. The beautiful, fearless Black Mariah. The one woman who tamed Jack Sparrow's wild heart.

Those days were gone. All I had to look forward to was being a nameless figure on the sea where anything was possible now...


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: The story is alive! It's s'not rotting in the depths of Davey Jones' Locker, I promise. I've recently commandeered a few props from the beloved pirate film and let's just say, owning something that used to be in the hands and on the hands of the devilish Captain Sparrow does tend to inspire one to pick up and write on where she left off. I know it's a short, _short_ chapter but please forgive me, there is a reason for it. It will pick up from this point on. I'm off to fawn over my new treasures now.

_Bootstrap's bootstraps..._

McFadden-

**Chapter Two**

By daylight the next morning, poor Mikey's eyes were already cloudy with tears as he stood at the harbor watching his dad help his aunt load the ship. He wasn't sure of the intricate details of why his father woke him up before dawn, but he was old enough to figure out it wasn't a good thing. Lucien stood with a sense of finality looking at the modest ship. _Modest for a pirate anyway..._

"Well, that'll do 'er Moira."

The pale woman's head popped out of the lower deck door, draped in a loose linen shirt. Bright scarves adorning her waist, with a yellow one tied to her head, standing out against the darkness of her hair whipping around it. Her pale skin and hazel eyes glowed with the reflection coming off of the water.

"That was fast. It's not going to sink the second I put her out to open sea, is she?"

She narrowed her eyes skeptically at her brother. Lucien tilted his head to the side and studied the ship, scratching his blonde, overgrown 5 o'clock shadow. She folded her arms challengingly and gave him the look. He smiled and spoke again.

"Are you sure you can handle sailing this thing without a crew?"

Moira looked at him for a moment as though he had said some blasphemous thing. He knew that look. She could see him holding back his laughter as he stuck the tip of his tongue out at her. Cocking an eyebrow, she replied dryly.

"I think I'll manage..."

She could hear his chuckle now as he turned to his son and patted him gently on the back. The boy looking back up at him with blue eyes, a little too sparkly to be without the help of some hiding and unshed tears lurking behind them.

Moira packed a small kerchief and folded into a package. Stepping over a crate, she made her way down the planks of wood on the dock. Kneeling before Mikey, she offered him a lopsided smile to the sad boy. She was finding it hard herself to make it look halfhearted because she was as equally upset. Mikey sniffled and wrapped his tiny armed around the much taller woman. Pushing the package into his hands, she put her head over his little shoulder and whispered.

"You don't open it now until I go, understand me?"

Feeling him nod, she smiled sadly even though he couldn't see as a tear fell from her eyes.

"I love you Mikey..."

She heard a broken sob that resembled the same words as his grip tightened. Her brother looked at her, his hand shielding his eyes from the oncoming sun.

"I'm only going to ask you this one more time; Are you sure you wanna do this?"

He really didn't mean to make it any harder for her, he was just doing his part as a brother. But Moira didn't even have to speak. Lucien could tell that no amount of begging, not even from a five year old, could keep his sister from the sea. In the past, persuading her to stay too long was always useless. She had always told him it was far too dangerous for a pirate to be on land. Secretly, with the fall of piracy, Lucien knew he had lucked out. His wife had died giving birth to Michael and with his sister's help, he was able to live comfortably. But he felt the loss of family too heavily. Within a year of piracy's end, the hangings of every blackheart began. Fearing the worst for the fate of his sister, Lucien begged and pleaded with her in letters to return home. It was only after Sparrow's death that she finally gave in. It was all over for her then. Moira would've been swinging with them too had he not kept her locked up in shadows until the suspicions died down, and her name became nothing more than a story.

Moira looked at him, knowing what he was thinking. He knew the pull the ocean had, himself being a merchant fisherman, but he was always too weak-willed to engage in piracy. She broke out of her thoughts and kissed Michael's head, grabbing his hand and walking with him to where Lucien stood. Staring at him for a good measured second, she finally hugged him tightly.

"Smile..."

Lucien chuckled despite the sailor's knot forming in his throat. Tapping her nephew on the nose, Moira tipped up her chin slightly and winked at him.

"What would Jack say, Hmm?"

What would normally be a gleeful shout from a laughing body was now deduced to a tearful choke as he tried his best not to cry infront of her.

"Keep to the Code."

Biting her lip slightly from his sad eyes, she nodded. Not finding the ability to say anything, she just kissed him and held him close, memorizing the sugary dirt smell of her nephew. Finally, pulling herself away, she looked reluctantly in her brother's direction, hating the feeling that settled into the pit of her stomach at the thought of leaving him alone. He sensed this and pulled her to him, squeezing her and kissing her on the forehead.

"I'll be fine, he'll be fine...

They both looked at his son with his poor, shaking shoulders. Lucien shrugged.

"Okay, He'll be a mess..."

Moira lolled her head back trying not to cry at her brother's joking attempts to make her feel awful. He pinched her arm and smiled.

"He'll be fine. I'll be fine, you'll be fine...We'll all be fine..."

He tried to flash his best goofy smile to cheer her up and hugged her.

"...Just go before I won't let you."

Her reply was so faint, he was surprised he heard it.

"Okay...Bye Luc."

She kissed her fingers and put her hand on her heart as walked backwards from them. A simple but notable gesture he recognized with familiarity. Only because Jack Sparrow himself had done it so many times whenever he was separated from her for even a day. Lucien wondered if his sister even realized she was doing it. Knowing better than to stay and prolonge the grief for the both of them, he scooped Michael up and walked away without looking back.

Not the same could be said for Mikey, he stared until he couldn't see the dock anymore.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Yes children, an update! I find it only fitting that I update today. So, raise your hands if you got into the Midnight showing... All I can say is I will be going again. Please spend the 8 bucks and have a good time. Oh, and I do tend to change POV's between 3rd person and 1st, it should be easy to catch if I do. Anyway, on with the story.

Play nice.

McFadden-

**Chapter Three**

At first it was like picking up an old habit again, but 12 hours in, the waves looked like they were laughing at her. Moira spent most pf her time berating herself for throwing so much caution to the wind. Jack was dead, and had been for many years. Why the hell was he still able to influence her to do something so stupid when he wasn't even there anymore. Taking the small and familiar compass out of her sachet, she noticed that it hadn't changed direction since she last picked it up. Being thus frustrated, she nearly tossed it overboard.

Silence was one thing that was not realized on the Lazarus. Moira cursed the waves for mocking her as she tried to steer and raise the mainsail at the same time, she screamed intelligible words at the dolphins that picked up route alongside of her ship, and Jack was thrown in there somewhere too, although, she couldn't tell you why. Inevitably something was going to have to change.

Almost a full day after setting sail, Moira was utterly frustrated with the ship. Call it being rusty if you will, but the point was all the same. Try as she may to deny it; she _had _to go to Port Royale to try and find straggler sea merchants who were once pirates to help her with the maintenance of her ship. She was either going to go mad managing it herself, or she'd just jump off of it and will it to sink on its own as she rotted in the sea.

Shifting a few degrees west, it took only a few hours more to be able to see the port town on the horizon. Growing darker by the minute, she was grateful that there were so many sailors lanterns on the small boats docked there. It would be easy to at least get her docked.

Once in port, Moira debarked and headed straight into town. Vaguely remembering by a slight sense of ease, she became comfortable with her surroundings. Few people we out enjoying the heavy night air. Walking down a pebbled street, Moira halted and did a double take at who she saw. There, headed into a seedy pub, she spotted Cotton with his parrot. Sneaking closer, leery of the possibility of the Navy lurking about, Moira slid into the bar and approached cotton by clearing her throat.

"Damned be my soul if it isn't Cotton!"

Swinging around fast, both the older man and his parrot looked her over with a hard and judging eye before they softened with recognition. The parrot then squawked.

"A needle in the eye...A needle in the eye!"

Moira smiled at his shocked expression.

"Make's a pirate go blind...Aye, it's me old friend."

Sitting on the stool next to him, she ordered him a drink and explained her whole situation and he sat and drank his rum. Inadvertently, he was convinced, which didn't take much goading on her part, to be the first to help her crew her ship. He knew just the person to start with too. And he happened to be sitting in the very same pub.

Excusing himself with a simple gesture, Cotton limped off into the corner of the room. Returning moments later with a face she had known most of her life. Jacoby Gibbs, who would be easily persuaded to return to the sea after so many years off of it, didn't even utter a word before he hugged her. Neither one of them made the mistake of mentioning Sparrow. Both had deemed it to be a very sore subject. Moira just felt lucky that she was able to find the two best mates that Jack ever had upon the Black Pearl.

Coming up to speed with the big gaps in their lives, Moira made a question of Anamaria whereabouts to which Cotton lowered his gaze and Gibbs shook his head.

"She was among the first to swing at the gallows. You know how damn stubborn that woman was. She would never hide the fact that she was a pirate, even if it meant saving her neck. Too proud. She's much like you in that respect. That's why I thought for certain that you were gone. I shoulda known better than to think that they could catch you though. You've saved our hides more than once in worse situations..."

Cottons parrot squawked in agreement. Moira was more than a little saddened to her the new, but more upsetting was the fact that it didn't surprise her that it had happened. _Not everyone in Jack's crew could've survived like she'd hoped. _Leaning in closer as to not draw attention to their conversation, Moira asked.

"How did you two manage to escape?"

Cotton's parrot replied on behalf of his divested master.

"One sail shy of a full mast."

An answer to which Gibbs agreed fully.

"That be true Cotton. It's easy to slip under their noses if they think you're a crazy loon."

He looked back at Moira and leaned in further. Raising a brow.

"Everyone thought it better to just leave him alone, I mean, whose he gonna tell? No one but pirates understand that damned bird anyway. So his secret was safe. I on the other hand, I had to make an accord with a local merchant. If I steered the casting nets for him and cleaned the barnacles from hulls down in the Harbor, he wouldn't turn me in. He's a good man. Someone I suspect might be engaged to join us if ye be so willing..."

He widened his eyes at her as she seemed to mull it over. It was the unvoiced recession in her eyes that let him know she was thinking about Jack. Gibbs watched her as she sprinkled spices into her tankard of rum. That was something only one other person did. Jack had bartered spices like cinnamon and a bit of cocoa on a passage through the straits once. He'd put it in to flavor the rum. Gibbs guessed that Moira grew fond of the taste. Or maybe she just favored the smell. Her eyes met his once more and she lifted her cup.

"I need all the good help I can get. Let's see what he's got Gibbs!"

After gathering the supplies they would need for the long days at sea, the crew and it's captain returned to the docks in search for their final crew member. Gibbs led them down the shoreline a ways until they ran up on a small boat tied to the pier. He shouted and a man appeared, staggering out of the lower decks. It looked as though the commotion woke him up. Moira looked him over with a calculating stare. Sizing up the potential he had to be a good mate. He was an older man of 50 years, wild white hair with a beard like Cotton's, and a squint to his eye even in the dim dusk of the oncoming morning. He looked used to the sun and had rough and calloused hands. A perfect telltale mark of a good sailor. Gibbs explained the proposition and pointed to Moira. From the looks of it, he was more than willing to join them. He walked over to Moira and tilted his head.

"Ma' name's Manny, Captain. I've heard stories, and would be proud to be under the pirate flag as long as it was on your ship."

Looking over to where her ship rested, Cotton and Gibbs stood slack-jawed at the sight.

"It the ghost of your old ship Shadow! Last I heard, she was sunk off the coast of India."

That _was_ what the King's Navy reported, but what they forgot to mention was that they didn't actually stick around to see her sink after they fired off their cannons. Moira smiled at that.

"She was a good ship, and she was badly injured while I was dealing with the East India Company, but I managed to salvage most of it and with time I made this one out of her."

With that she hauled the supplies and her new scappers, they all made a move to board the ship until Gibbs stopped them again. Looking quite uneasy with himself.

"Does she have a name? You know it's bad luck to be going out in the Locker on a ship without a name."

Moira smiled at Gibbs and his superstitions. Leave it to good ol' Gibbs to never lose a character trait. _Of course her ship had a name!_ She walked up next to him and patted his shoulder.

"She's called Lazarus."

He considered it and grunted,

"Good name..."

Moira climbed aboard, headed to the wheel, and signaled for Cotton to haul the anchor up.

"Manny take in the extra line so that we don't drag the bottom. There's a row of coral that barrier this island. Don't want to snag it and lose the weight do we..."

It definitely felt better having people onboard with her now. Especially those she knew she could trust.

That night the remainder of the crew were familiarizing themselves with the ship's layout. Manny climbed up the mast of the ship and took post inside the crow's nest to keep an eye out for offending ships on the horizon. Gibbs was rightfully behind the wheel, taking the night shift for Moira. Cotton took it upon himself to tie down the lines of the sails so they picked up the starboard wind, billowing the sails out in full. Manny yelled down from his perch.

"Where are we headed Captain?"

She took out Jack's old compass, making sure no one was aware and took a peek at it. Watching as it spun around wildly and stopped, pointing South. She nodded to Gibbs.

"Keep the steerage south until daybreak. I'll come and take over from there. Manny, make sure we're in line with the southern sky. We need to get as far south tonight as we can. Lookout for small merchant vessels or anything that looks suspicious."

Gibbs took a glance at her and knew that she needed some time by herself to think. She held that far away look in her eyes, that never did anyone any good without silence.

"Aye Mariah, consider it done."

Smiling at the long-lost name he used, she retired for the night. Looking about the Captain's cabin, Moira started to ease up a little bit. Deciding it would be best if she changed, she undressed and brushed her hair out of the knots that the wind had tangled it into. While sitting on the bed, Moira picked up her dress that she wore that night and smelled it. The cinnamon was un her clothes. She relaxed with the scent, but it was so much heavier when she laid her head down on her pillow. This only made her miss Jack more. It also lulled her into a dream-filled sleep.

Early the following morning she awoke and took over the steerage and ordered Gibbs and the others to get some shuteye. A dream had put it in her head, the notion of a certain destination. She knew exactly where she was headed.

Misty waters had invaded their entire surroundings when Gibbs finally awoke. He wasn't the least bit thrilled with it either, and had no problem letting the Captain know how he felt. He knew where they were.

"What are we doing at the Graveyard of Ships?"

As the fog cleared, they could see the caves that were thought to be destroyed. Gibbs stood amazed.

"Blessed be...Isla De Muerta!"

Manny stood wide-eyed. It was something that he only heard in the stories that Jacoby told him and now, he was right there, looking at it. Inside the cave, it was still glittering with treasure under the water. Cotton just kept an eye on the passing wreckage so that they didn't hit any of it.

Hoping the anchor would catch onto something, Moira threw it over and watched it splash in the water. However, that wasn't the only splash she heard. Looking around, she nearly had a panic attack when she finally realized what had caused it. The oversized emerald skull ring had slipped off of her finger and into the water. Without thinking twice, she dove down into the water to retrieve her ring.

While underneath the water, scratching around the sandy bottom, she searched until she saw her ring lying next to another familiar one. It was gold, with a large, smooth amethyst set inside of it. She knew that ring...it belonged to Jack! She scooped up both of them and then turned her footing to swim to the surface when she was jolted with shock. Pushing up to the top and breaking the surface, Moira sputtered and inhaled a deep breath. Gibbs looked over the side of the ship and yelled at her.

"Ye alright Cap?"

Moving the wet strands of hair out of her eyes, she waved his concern off, letting him see that she was fine. Floating there and composing herself, she tried to wrap her mind around what she saw below the water. She could've sworn that Jack had been watching her from a porthole in the hull of the Lazarus!


End file.
